


She calls me back, every time

by Royalwriter



Series: BeauJester Week 2019 [3]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cuddling & Snuggling, F/F, Multiple Years, One Night Stands, Pining, Roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-20 16:27:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19995226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Royalwriter/pseuds/Royalwriter
Summary: Beauregard has a lot of one night stands over the years. She keeps finding herself coming back to her room, back to her roommate Jester. And every time, Jester's there, waiting for her with food and laughter. She's not quite sure what it is that draws her back, until one night she realizes. It was this pull to Jester that keep her from staying all along.





	She calls me back, every time

**Author's Note:**

> Week three of Beaujester! This one's probably my favorite!

The first time Beau stumbles back into her and Jester’s room, still a little hazy from her night out and sleep deprivation, she’s shocked to find still-warm oatmeal waiting on her desk. Jester’s passed out in her bed across the room, but she’s jerry rigged a heating pad underneath the cup to keep it warm.

Beau’s pretty sure it’s a safety hazard, but also it’s four AM and it’s not like she got anything to eat before stealthing out of the dorm of her one night stand.

It was hard, too. They have auto-locking, heavy doors that slam easily. Beau didn’t want to be rude and sneak out before she fell asleep, but, well, she also wasn’t going to stay the night. She doesn’t sleep well around other people. Jester excluded.

She worries too much, keeps herself awake every time they shift. It’s just not worth it. Besides, the morning after is much less awkward if you’re gone for it.

She scarfs down the oatmeal. Nothing’s ever tasted better than that. It’s Jester’s organic crap— she’s the only college student in the world still shopping organic, but her mother is generous enough with allowance to keep her well funded.

Beau felt bad for taking advantage of it at first, but if she didn’t Jester just tricked her into taking her offerings anyway, so she caved.

Finishing the oatmeal, she chugs the water that Jester left on her desk for her.

She tries to tiptoe into bed, but her legs are still a bit shaky and the terrible metal bed creaks loudly under her when she puts any weight on it.

Jester sits straight up, beaming at her. Her tail swishes between her legs. Beau smiles.

“Beau! How was it? Did you have a good time?” Jester’s almost as excited to hear about Beau’s adventures as Beau was to go on them.

“They were good, perv. She was very nice.”

Jester laughs, “I’m not a perv! I just wanted to make sure you had fun, that’s all.”

Beau laughs back at her, “I know, I know. Thanks for the grub, how’d you know I’d be starving?”

“Mama always was. She said nothing tasted better than good food after a good lay.”

“Shit, she’s got me there. It hit the spot, thanks, Jessie.”

“Of course Beau.”

Beau’s halfway to sleep before something else occurs to her.

“Hey, Jes?”

A sleepy sound emerges from Jester before actual words, and somehow that gets Beau to blush.

“What’s the matter Beau?”

“How’d you know I’d be back in time to eat that? What if I’d stayed the night?”

“You never stay the night. You’re not as stealthy as you think.”

“Huh.”

“Goodnight, Beau.”

“Night, Jes.”

And even though Jester snores like a freight train, Beau finds herself asleep within minutes.

* * *

They keep up the tradition. They stay roommates, even when they move into a suite and don’t share the same bedroom anymore. Jester cooks for Beau, more elaborate meals now that they have a kitchen, and every time, Beau’s grateful.

One chilly night, when fall starts fading into winter, Beau slips in earlier than she usually does. She’s shivering from the walk over, rain heavy enough to get her wet but not heavy enough to justify using the bus. 

Jester drops the lid of a pot with a clatter when she opens the door. 

“Beau! You’re home early!” She turns to Beau with a hug smile to wrap her in a hug. “I’m making popcorn, it’s just not ready yet, are you okay? You don’t usually get home until, like, at least midnight.”

Beau takes a second to hold her head in Jester’s shoulder in the hug. It warms her past the chill of the rain.

“I’m good. I was just ready to come home,” she says.

What she doesn’t say is that she wanted Jester. Wanted to see what Jester had made, if she’d kept up this silly old tradition that they started years before. She wanted to be hugged, and poked and fed for reasons beyond just having sex.

“You’re sure?” Jester squints at her, returning to shaking the popcorn pot. “I don’t have to kill anyone? Don’t have to sicc Yasha and myself on your most recent date?”

Beau laughs and hoists herself onto the counter, “Nah. I’d rather you didn’t, she was nice.”

“Not nice enough for you to stay,” Jester teases.

“If I stayed, who would eat all of the food you make? It’d all go to waste. I’m doing you a service.”

Jester rolls her eyes, pouring the finished popcorn in a bowl and moving to melt butter.

“If you started staying overnight, I’d stop making food. Or I’d call Nott and have her come over, or let Fjord, or Yasha, or Clay, or—”

“Okay! Okay!” Beau holds her hands up in mock surrender. “You’ve made your point. You’d survive.” 

“I _would_ miss this, though,” Jester says, swinging up to sit next to Beau. “I like seeing you every night. I’m glad we’re still roommates.”

The ease of that confession tugs at Beau’s heart. Because she’s glad, too, more glad than she should be. She loves seeing Jester every day, loves— Nope. That train is ending there. Beau’s scared, though, that if she opens her mouth looking at Jester sitting next to her eating food that she made just for Beau, that she always makes just for Beau, Beau will say something stupid and ruin the balance they have.  
So, instead, she grabs the biggest handful of popcorn she can and stuffs it into her mouth, puckering her lips to press a piece to the front of her lips.

“Beau! Nasty! You’re going to spill popcorn everywhere!” 

In response, Beau opens her mouth to let a few wet pieces of popcorn fall in Jester’s general direction.

“Ew!” Jester slaps at her arm, before grabbing her own fistful of popcorn. “Okay, if that’s what we’re going to do.” She shoves the popcorn in her mouth, spitting pieces at Beau.

Beau shrieks best she can around the popcorn and darts off the counter, dodging Jester as well as trying to retaliate. There’s a few minutes of both of them running around the small space, ducking and weaving behind the couch.

Beau runs out of ammo first. She crouches low, pretending she still has popcorn in her mouth and moves to tackle Jester. Jester anticipates it though, and scoops Beau up mid run, tossing her over her shoulder.

They’re both laughing so hard they can barely breathe. Jester’s knees are almost doubled over, and Beau’s squirming.

“Put me down! I give, I give,” Beau laughs. Jester doesn’t usually beat her in wrestling matches, but she’s happy to surrender when she actually does.

Jester sets her down, taking a minute to flex. Beau looks for probably too long before turning away.

“We should clean this up and get to bed, I know you have your disgusting nine AM painting class.”

“Hey, I like my painting class! And I can get up before nine AM without just instantly dying,” Jester retorts.

“The fact that you can make terrible choices without consequences isn’t exactly something to brag about.”

Jester rolls her eyes yet again.

“Hey, Jes, can I sleep with you tonight?” Beau asks.

“Of course!”

It’s a tradition that they started when they moved in and had separate rooms. The excuse is that they both got used to listening to each other sleep and had trouble sleeping alone. And now, well, there’s only one bed in each room, and it’d be dumb to make the other sleep on the floor. They cuddle because there’s just no room.

Hours later, when they’re finally in bed despite getting distracted half a dozen times cleaning up, Beau reminds herself that that’s the only reason this is happening. When Jester curls into her chest, and Beau idly traces circles on her arms, Beau reminds herself that this is just a friend thing.

Regardless of the fact that she’s a million times more comfortable falling asleep in this bed than in the bed of any of the one night stands she’s tried to stay the night in. Beau ignores that, and resists the urge to kiss the top of Jester’s head once she’s asleep.

It’s a friend thing. It’s cool.

* * *

It’s a few months later, and winter has definitely come to campus. Beau’s no longer trekking through faint fall rain, now it’s a blizzard so bad she can barely see where she’s going. Campus is entirely ice, and even careful as she is, Beau slips, busting her knee on the shards.

She limps up the stairs, because knee be damned, she doesn’t trust the fucking elevators in this building. It’s shitty, but she knows Jester will be at the top with probably some sort of hot drink and that’s enough to make her smile.

Sure enough, when Beau opens the door Jester is laid across the counter doodling in her sketchbook. 

Jester perks up when she enters. Beau smiles almost without realizing it.

“Hey, Jess, whatcha drawing?”

“You guys. It’s for portrait class. It’s not that exciting, though. How are you?” She closes her sketchbook and darts over to pour something from the stove into a mug and Beau sighs with relief.

“I busted my knee on the ice getting up here, and I’m cold as shit, but beyond that, I’m good.”

“You should sit! We have to ice that, come on.” Jester abandons the mug to shuffle Beau off. She moves surprisingly quickly, and before Beau really processes it, her leg is elevated on the coffee table, iced, and she’s wrapped in a blanket.

She forgets sometimes that Jester is a nursing student as well as an art student. Jester shoves the mug in her hands and sits next to her, leaning against her. Beau’s gone from hurting and freezing to wrapped in the fuzziest blanket they own and cuddled. It’s pretty fucking nice.

“See! That’s better, I can’t let you freeze to death, or bust your leg too badly to do sick fights. That sucks for everyone,” Jester says.

“I get it, you like watching me fight,” Beau replies.

Jester snorts, but doesn’t deny it. “It’s pretty cold to walk all the way back. You made it okay?”

“Yeah. I mean, the weather blows, but it’s nothing that I can’t handle.”

“You came back, though. I wasn’t sure you were going to tonight.”

“I always come back, you know that, Jes.” Beau knows it, too. Even when she tries to stay the night, tries to set up other dates, make it a real thing, she always ends up back here.

Ends up staring at Jester over something warm, and spending the night at her side. 

“Yeah, it’s just that it’s cuffing season, so a couple people were joking around, taking bets that you would end up in looove. But I guess that hasn’t happened yet, huh?”

Beau sips at her hot chocolate to avoid responding. She might be, just a little bit in love, but not with anyone that Jester would guess, and she’s nervous about saying so.

“Not with anyone I’ve slept with, nah. Not my style.”

They sit in silence for a few minutes, both sipping at their hot chocolate, Jester snug against Beau’s side. The snow falls quietly outside, and the only light in the room is the table lamp Jester turned on while waiting for Beau. 

“Beau? Can I ask you something?” Jester breaks the silence, but only just.

“You can ask me anything, anytime.”

“Why do you always leave? I know you’re a big heartbreaker and all that, but also I know that’s not true. I know you care, I know that’s not it. Why do you always come back?” 

“I, uh—” Beau sighs heavily. She could lie. She could lie and Jester would take it as truth, probably, but right this second, she isn’t sure she wants to. “Honestly?”

“Yes, please.”

“Honestly, recently it’s been because I’ve wanted to come back to _you._ It wasn’t that at first, I used to just be bad at sleeping in other people’s beds, but— I’ve wanted to see you. To look at you smile, to spend the night in your bed. It’s, it might be stupid, but I think I might be kind of in love with you? And that’s, uh— That’s why I haven’t been staying the night. Because it’s not the same.”

Jester’s silent for so long that Beau is scared she’s fucked everything up. They’re going to have to find new roommates, middle of the semester, and Jester’s never going to talk to her again. Finally, though, Beau looks up at Jester, and she’s smiling.

“Really?”

“No, that was a really cool joke. Yeah, Jester, really.”

“Beau, I might be a little in love with you, too. I just didn’t think this would ever happen. I didn’t think this would happen at all, I thought you were just too cool for me, I guess.”

Beau laughs, “No one could possibly be too cool for you, specially not me. But yeah, that’s it.”

They both kind of stare at each other for a minute, before Beau sets her mug down and clears her throat.

“We should maybe like— do something about this? Can I kiss you? Would that be okay?”

“Oh! Yeah!” Jester scrambles to set her mug down, before closing the gap between them.

The kiss is a little awkward at first, because Beau’s leg is still elevated on the table, but they find a position and a rhythm. They kiss slowly, gently, like they have all the time in the world, because they do. 

The hot chocolate grows cold on the table as they kiss. Eventually, they both fall asleep there, Jester’s head resting on Beau’s chest like it has so many times before. Now though, just before Beau drifts off, she indulges her urge to kiss the top of Jester’s head.


End file.
